A district authority in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt has declared the country’s first ever hacking emergency, after a cyberattack paralyzed its computer systems.
Berlin : “The administrator of the Anhalt-Bitterfeld district declared a disaster, effective 11:00 a.m. on July 9th, 2021,” the district council said in a statement. The administration said it was working with other agencies to mount a coordinated response to the cyberattack. The federal IT watchdog BSI is involved. The public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk said hackers may have used ransomware to scramble data and demand money for the keys that will unlock the systems. The authorities reportedly said it will take about two weeks to bring its systems back online. It will not be able to pay welfare benefits in the area with a population of some 157,000.
